A 5-year-old Philadelphia girl is recovering after she shot herself in the big toe while playing with her father’s gun at home on Tuesday night. She was at home with her two siblings and her father when the gun discharged.
Seriously? Another one? This all begs one crucial question: when is enough going to be enough?
At first glance, this story has a happy ending, right? Someone got shot in the toe. She's fine. But no 5-year-old should have access to a gun. Period. This story could have had a much more tragic ending. The fact is children are accidentally discharging weapons more often than you can imagine.
Consider this: it could have just as easily been just her head, or her dad’s heart or one of her siblings. It only takes a second of a loaded firearm in the wrong hands, especially little inexperienced ones, to go from not so serious to deadly.
This isn't the first time this has happened. It seems like these kinds of stories happen almost weekly and it HAS to stop.
Guns should be locked up. Period.
Would a parent leave a machete lying around? Would he have left his running chainsaw lying around? Would you leave your children around an open fire and combustible materials and then be surprised when they got blown to bits? Then why the hell would anyone leave a shiny gun with bullets in it just lying around the house?
Until people can handle firearms safely, especially when children are in the house, maybe the right to keep and bear arms is trumped by our children's safety.
Who do you think should be held responsible in this case?
Image via idleman/Flickr
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Comments 10
Bravo, JLM!
And Rhonda? You can question the right all you want. You can even fight to change it, but do it the right way. Currently the only way to have LEGAL weapons restrictions is to amend the constitution to allow it. If you argue for an amendment to the constitution you'll have my respect. Anything else is intellectually dishonest. Whether you like or agree with the right it does in fact exist in the constitution as an inalienable right.
Unfortunatly, irresponsible gun owners exist. However, tighter gun restrictions really won't do anything to stop that, common sense is not really something you can make a law about. Because a few people are stupid does not mean that we should loose our constitutional right to bear arms, that is asinine. We outlaw guns, then the only people who have them is criminals, because criminals will find a way, it's in their nature. Then, as in England, criminals are far more likely to use their guns to shoot to kill, because the penalty for getting caught with one is huge.
i have several guns that i own myself, & im the mother of a 5 year old girl, but from the moment Ive bought a gun it has either had a gun lock on it (this can only be opened by a key) & in a gun cabinet that locks...
i love my guns, but i love my daughter more & would never ever want to see her playing with a gun, knife etc. so i keep them locked up when they are not being used.
It's not about guns, it's about irresponsible parenting. Even if these parents didn't have a gun in the house, they're clearly supervising their child so little that their child could easily have overdosed and died on over-the-counter Tylenol or somesuch. Removing guns won't help when parents are neglectful and/or stupid. Their kids will just find different ways to off themselves while their parents continue to not look.